bzwrxbz wrote:Here are some screenshots from an older thread (and someone else's recipe), with an older version of BTP, but, the same principle applies

Images snipped.

Thanks, bzwrxbz. The main thing I want to add here for 'rdwj' and any newbies is that in the 'Separation' window that has been named "Batch Sparge", you use the '+' and '-' buttons in the window to add or subtract sparges.

By the way, bzwrxbz, I checked out your blog per your signature, and I like it. I noticed a picture of your mash tun, and that you have to siphon from it. What are you using to drain or separate the extract from the grains? I use ten feet of stainless steel mesh tubing for a bazooka.

I haven't had time to read all of your blog, but you seem to be a fairly experienced brewer, so I'm also surprised that you haven't managed to get around to getting an ice chest with a drain at the bottom; isn't siphoning a pain in the butt? How do you vorlauf? I can't even imagine; before I start draining to my kettle, I draw probably six or seven small pots (2 qt.) of extract and CAREFULLY return them to the tun to cause the least amount of disturbance, and that requires my attention. If I were to be siphoning in the process, then my tube would no doubt drain back into the tun and I'd have to start the siphon each and every time. And of course I vorlauf again after fresh sparge water is added for batch sparging. I'm certainly not criticizing your methods, but rather am curious how you manage it.

bzwrxbz wrote:Here are some screenshots from an older thread (and someone else's recipe), with an older version of BTP, but, the same principle applies

Images snipped.

Thanks, bzwrxbz. The main thing I want to add here for 'rdwj' and any newbies is that in the 'Separation' window that has been named "Batch Sparge", you use the '+' and '-' buttons in the window to add or subtract sparges.

By the way, bzwrxbz, I checked out your blog per your signature, and I like it. I noticed a picture of your mash tun, and that you have to siphon from it. What are you using to drain or separate the extract from the grains? I use ten feet of stainless steel mesh tubing for a bazooka.

I haven't had time to read all of your blog, but you seem to be a fairly experienced brewer, so I'm also surprised that you haven't managed to get around to getting an ice chest with a drain at the bottom; isn't siphoning a pain in the butt? How do you vorlauf? I can't even imagine; before I start draining to my kettle, I draw probably six or seven small pots (2 qt.) of extract and CAREFULLY return them to the tun to cause the least amount of disturbance, and that requires my attention. If I were to be siphoning in the process, then my tube would no doubt drain back into the tun and I'd have to start the siphon each and every time. And of course I vorlauf again after fresh sparge water is added for batch sparging. I'm certainly not criticizing your methods, but rather am curious how you manage it.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

Well, I started all-grain about 4 or 5 months ago, but have only been brewing for about 2 years (not as experienced as most others).

I use stainless steel tubing, like most other batch spargers. My mashtun is small (only 6 gallons or so = 24qt), so the tubing runs the length of the tun only (maybe 18").

Siphoning is not a pain... remember, sanitation is not necessary at this stage since it is preboil.

My vorlauf only takes about 2 litres of running to clear, which takes all of 4 minutes or so. When I am placing the unclear wort back into the tun, I just pinch the tubing and nothing runs back into the cooler/tun. I am AMAZED at how simple and efficient the system is... when I first started brewing, I never thought it could be this easy to get quick clear runnings, and high efficiency without an intricate fly sparge/arm setup.

In Deutshland, it is hard to find a cheap cooler with a spigot at the bottom, so I just bought one without it.

bzwrxbz wrote:Snip ... I use stainless steel tubing, like most other batch spargers. My mashtun is small ... snip
My vorlauf only takes about 2 litres of running to clear ... snip

Since this is actually off-topic for this thread, I'm going to post a reply under the 'equipment' forum of this board, if you would care to look at it. Besides, there might be a few folks there who might be interested.

rdwj,
I actually sat down and did the math, not being used to mashing as thin as 2 qt/lb, and it turns out you probably wouldn't need to do a mash out as long as your recipe uses more than about 8-8.5 lbs. of grain.

What would I change on the above settings if I wanted to do a 10gal batch? I always do about 11-12gal for racking etc, so I end up with 2-5gal kegs. Would I just change the "Final Vol" to 12gal? I use a converted 15gal keg as a brew pot, so space is not a prob. Thanks for the help in advance.

The screen shots in the above post showing how to set up a mash schedule are very understandable and its clear to see the water added, available and runoff. However, this example shows the brewer brewing in a gott type cooler. Since he cannot heat this, presumably water is heated in some other vessel. According to the instructions in the wiki if you are heating in a separate vessel you need to select that vessel and the heat source otherwise the program assumes you are heating in the mash tun. When I select the other vessel and heat source, because I am mashing in a cooler, my calculations have all sorts of other variables thrown in that make trying to understand the water additions, available water and runoff quite confusing. For example, my mash in time is no longer 3 or five minutes but is now automatically set to something like 22 minutes (presumably because that is how long it takes me to heat up my water in my separate vessel). When I set up my first runnings, simply to drain my tun, I get a number that is different from what is available. When I try to change some of the numbers that automatically reset to the original figures and I'm not really sure what controls this. Sorry about being somewhat vague but I don't really even know how to describe what's going on. Is there someway to take a screen shot of my mash schedule and post it in this post so I can show what's going on? Thanks.

Actually I just found this post in which the brewer asks and provides lots of screen shots detailing many of the questions I have. I'll have to read through this carefully and then check back here for follow up. Thanks.

splashmike wrote:snip ... Is there someway to take a screen shot of my mash schedule and post it in this post so I can show what's going on? Thanks.

I don't know about the Apple or Linux operating systems, but this is how I do it for windows. Just above your "Insert" button on your keyboard, which is right above your "Delete" key, you should see a key that says "Prt Scr / SysRq" -- use your 'Shift Key' and hit that button ('print screen'), which will copy your screen to your clipboard memory. Then open your "Paint" program (standard with all Windows operating systems), click on the menu commands 'Edit' and 'Paste' and that will paste your screen shot on the Paint window. I generally try to trim the screen shot down to a manageable size by using the menu command "Window" and "Attributes" which will clip the bottom and right-side of the image according to the sizes you insert; if you want to clip the top or left-side, invert or rotate the image first, reduce the size in the attributes, and then rotate it around to the correct position before saving. I recommend saving it as a "JPEG" image (the file 'type' on the save panel) because that will reduce the size of the file. Now, you should be able to just add that image as an attachment to emails, but I'm not sure if that will be enough here in this forum; the sample format for inserting images which is shown above as I draft this reply, suggests that you need to insert the image location, which makes it a bit more complicated. This is how I do that; I use my personal website (most Internet Service Providers give you a 'page' as part of their service), and I "FTP" (file transfer protocol) the file to my website. If you have never done that before you will need to download an FTP client program from someplace like Tucows.com or somewhere; there are a number of good FREE ftp clients. Personally, I use "LeechFTP", which is a good program. Using your ftp client, upload your image file (.jpeg or otherwise) to your personal homepage directory, and then use that address in your message on this forum by adding the tags

On a Mac, to get a screenshot, hit Command+Shift+4 -- the cursor will change to a crosshair, click and drag the area you want to make a screenshot of, and a picture will show up on your desktop. Easy as pie! (If you want a picture of the whole screen, hit Command+Shift+3).

The picture will be a .png but it's easy to convert it to .jpg -- just open it in Preview (or another graphics program) and Save as... -- you can rename it and change the file type to .jpg there.

I use Photobucket for my picture hosting -- it's free and it works well. There are others that are probably as good or better, but Photobucket was the first one I tried and it's what I'm used to.

Thanks for the very detailed reply. But dang, taking a screen shot is more confusing than setting up my batch sparge schedule. I'm going to spend some time reading through the post I found to see if it answers my questions. If not, I'll be back. Again, thanks.

just-cj wrote:snip ... I use Photobucket for my picture hosting -- it's free and it works well. There are others that are probably as good or better, but Photobucket was the first one I tried and it's what I'm used to.

I had completely forgotten about that option; it is certainly easier than ftp'ing a file to your own webpage. Thanks.